For County Growers, the Weather’s Fine

As another storm front bears down on Ventura County, farmers and flood-control officials say the pattern of showers followed by sunny breaks is making for a near-perfect winter so far.

With less than a month left before spring, rain totals across the county are near or above normal and crop damage has been minimal despite some freezing nights and drenching storms.

“We have lost fruit, not plants,” said Mike Conroy, an Oxnard strawberry farmer who lost nearly a day’s worth of strawberries in a heavy downpour earlier this month. “The rain is nothing but beneficial to the plant as long as it’s not under water.”

The next storm should hit tonight and hover over Ventura County for much of Sunday before it moves on. Overnight lows should drop into the mid-30s to low 40s, with daytime highs in the mid-50s on Sunday, said Eric Hilgendorf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Snow levels are expected to dip to the 3,000-foot level as the storm dumps up to an inch of snow in the mountains and an inch of rain along the coast and inland valleys.

Today should be mostly clear with highs in the mid-50s to 60. A small front that moved through the county Friday morning brought less than a quarter-inch of rain to most areas, Hilgendorf said.

After a dry December that saw rain totals plummet to drought-season levels, the rainy season hit with a vengeance in mid-January. A strong northern Pacific storm that brought 20-foot waves and knocked down power lines and trees set the tone when it arrived Jan 12.

Since then, a series of cold storms has hit the county about every four days, bringing steady showers and a consistent snowpack to nearby mountains. Flood damage to property has been minimal.

It’s a marked change from recent years, when storms battered the county and sent many residents scurrying to higher ground.

Three years ago, the El Nino storms forced then-Gov. Pete Wilson to declare Ventura County a disaster area after a blitz of powerful fronts battered the area and caused more than $50 million in damage to crops and infrastructure.

Ventura County averages 16 inches of rain each year, but the El Nino storms brought a record 42 inches. Frosty temperatures have also caused damage in recent winters.

Two years ago, a January cold spell devastated the region’s valuable citrus industry with crop damage estimated at $74.3 million. Orchards in Santa Paula, Ojai and the Santa Rosa Valley took the biggest hit when nighttime temperatures dropped to 22 degrees.

Until the first January storm this year, county rain totals for the season had barely tipped past an inch. Since then, there has been more than 17 inches in some areas.

“This is just as close to a normal year as you are going to get,” said Dolores Taylor, senior hydrologist with the Ventura County Flood Control District. “The thing that hasn’t happened this year is the heavy storm intensities. The ground has been able to absorb quite a bit of water.”

But Taylor cautioned that the county is “not out of the woods yet,” noting that March sometimes brings torrential storms. The “March Miracle” of 1991 flooded strawberry crops and low-lying vegetable fields with 12 inches of rain after several drought years.

Even with the good weather, farmers monitoring their crops have had nervous moments. Fierce December winds destroyed about 5% of the county’s lemon and avocado crops--a minor blip for the two industries, which together pump about $264 million into the county annually.

A month later, Santa Paula farmer Bob Pinkerton and other county growers fired up the wind machines in an effort to keep their crops from icing up in the near-freezing weather.

“[The winter] got off to a weird start. We had a dry November and then we had five weeks of winds in December and January. That scarred some fruit,” said Pinkerton, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “Ever since, we have been getting good rains and they have come fairly steady, but not too much. We’re in a great position as far as citrus and avocados are concerned.”

The winter weather “is the only thing that hasn’t gone wrong this year,” said Rick Carpenter, a vice president at the Santa Paula-based Limoneira Co., which grows citrus and avocados across 4,200 acres.

Increased costs associated with higher electricity and natural-gas bills have dampened many farmers’ reaction to the good weather news, Carpenter said.

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Division for the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Friday . Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.05 8.67 9.16 Casitas Dam 0.08 16.94 16.26 Casitas Rec. Center 0.09 16.64 16.37 Fillmore 0.04 14.67 13.15 Matilija Dam 0.04 19.86 18.64 Moorpark 0.06 8.76 9.99 Ojai 0.06 15.27 14.68 Upper Ojai 0.08 17.61 15.92 Oxnard 0.04 10.22 10.02 Piru 0.27 10.01 11.72 Port Hueneme 0.10 7.56 9.83 Santa Paula 0.05 14.72 12.31 Simi Valley 0.08 10.47 9.66 Thousand Oaks 0.08 10.10 10.45 Ventura Govt. Center 0.05 12.18 9.71

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